A top associate of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been detained on the doorstep of an alleged security guard who mistakenly revealed details of Navalny’s alleged poisoning with a Soviet-era nerve agent.
MOSCOW – A top associate of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was detained on Friday after he caught an alleged security guard who mistakenly revealed details about Navalny’s alleged poisoning with a Soviet-era nerve agent.
Lyubov Sobol, a key figure in the Navalny Anticorruption Foundation, was detained for 48 hours after a day of interrogation, accused of violating violence. The move followed Sobol’s Monday attempt to break into the alleged agent’s Moscow apartment, which Navalny had previously tricked into describing details of the alleged poisoning.
Sobol denied the allegations and insisted he had not violated any law by ringing the bell at the apartment. While Sobol was being questioned, the state’s committee of inquiry issued a statement accusing her of copyright infringement – allegations that her colleagues rejected.
Earlier this week, Navalny launched a recording of a phone call he said he addressed to a man he identified as Konstantin Kudryavtsev and described as an alleged member of a group of Federal Security Service or FSB officers who he is supposed to have poisoned him with Agent Novichok from the Soviet era in August and then tried to hide him.
Navalny, who is recovering in Germany, said he called the man a few hours before the Bellingcat investigative group released a report stating that FSB agents with chemical weapons training had been following him for years, and they were in the immediate vicinity when he was poisoned.
On appeal, Navalny introduced himself as a security officer and deceived his interlocutor by sharing details about the alleged poisoning operation and admitting that he was involved in “processing” Navalny’s underwear so that there were “no traces” of poison.
Navalny fell ill during a flight from Russia on August 20 and was transported to Berlin while still in a coma for treatment two days later. Laboratories in Germany, France and Sweden, as well as tests carried out by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, have determined that he was exposed to a Novichok nerve agent from the Soviet era.
The Russian authorities vehemently denied any involvement in the poisoning, and the FSB rejected the registration launched by Navalny as false.